Judge — March 15, 1930 — page 23: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

JUDGE AUDGING™ BOOKS (VERY around Ju afternoon the air grows black. Thun der rumbles, Underwoods trembl comic artists dic: 1 come to work, The handsome, gloomy lad from the South, stalks in, his young face ravaged with 1 thousand movies, his melancholy half-blinded = from the silver sereen, his cars twin cauliflowers from the howls and thumping grunts of that new electrical marvel, the Vita phone. Pushing the typewriter aside is if it were a movie usher, he attacks 1 sheet of pure white paper and spills 1 week-end of hate tired pencil. Lorentz movie critic, a eves all over it with a The pity of it. So young and so hitter, Literature may be a grueli ind a faithless hag, but the movies : just a dumb blonde. derstand Pare’s acidity: his greed for Art during the Cecil B. De Millennium, Only a giant capacity for suffering dose much Paramount . And now he 1 put the overflow of his torn spirit inte “Censored — The Movies,” a work co-authored — with Well can we un Dons. 1 volume called Private Life of the which he — has Lawyer Morriy Ernst, or the young Darrow, H puts in a tough spot. about thi to say in but we're not sure they workmanli b of saying it. The book is an axe-grinding on the touchy subject of screen censorship. Which is a braw subject for our teeth- ing Nathan and his loyal pard to tackle, especially if their hearts, if they be not pure, are at least: whole- some. Now, Pare Lorentz has a good wind and Lawyer Ernst has the mak- philosopher. But we think that a book which purports to strike a deathblow to censorship should round up its subject thoroughly ind, presenting it as a debate, should worry the subject to a frazzle and kn it cold at the end. This doesn’t. It fights all over the place, wasting its punches 1 socking = raggedly without scoring completely, finally. Here are our main object : The strong and exceedingly sound opinions of our young friends do not appear to their best advant because they are hot properly juxtaposed. It is swell hate without direction. Are the au thors nst the censors, the D.A.R., the American people, Will Hays, the have made a R.C.A,, in for a pretty razzing. ‘The bit point, however, seems that the authors are anti-whatnot and sure of only one premise, “Everything is lousy." And the book is about a simple subject Should there be censorship? On the other hand, “Censored” is part of the new inquiry into changing morality. It makes a fine preface to such a study. It is full of amusing t on what drops from the I shears and has neat slams at te lives of the saintly cutters. sis shown up for all time, or the All these radio? never go out of our way to with the Great American an again, We shudde: sym Uy with the authors at the future of America when the R.CLA gets full control of the talkies, though the story of the violation of constitu tional rights has miliar ring and rd it before, The decorative photographs of the Guardi ans of Public Decency tell their own moral stories. And the judicious in clusion in the book of feelthy pece tures censored by these Morality Moguls are—ummmmm ! OF course, the authors are in asserting that) the more important every we seem to have he all wrong. censors grow This is plain tosh. Censors are rapidly going to rot. Moreover, why the authors defend the movie makers in any way is beyond us. It seems they are black as the true villains of the picee: the American audiences. In the end. mnorals swing the way these would have them go. And the way is pointed by « geniuses like Ibsen and Shaw. Real censorship. is but the display of real taste. ‘The solution would lie in following the 1 if they spring up. We realize we've been getting ex cited and airing our even if we've be sional geniuses, when own opinions n disagreeing. Well. isn’t that enough to send you packing for the book to form some your own? Remember what Voltaire said! And the book will stimu gument one way or sorship has alway debate. It was argued se after the first caveman decided on a society based on don'ts. It will be mulled about when the perfect four- dimensional, Art squawkie, produced by a super-Lubitsch under no obstruc tions from Zukor, is exhibited on the planct Mars. Suane nions of open to Mr. Rawurr you! Charmed, T assure What the should wear, well-dressed kibitze comicbooks.com